The present disclosure relates generally to computer systems and software, and more particularly to techniques for managing access to information in an enterprise environment.
Data storage, both from an enterprise and from a consumer perspective, has progressed from locally stored storage systems for each computer system, to network attached storage which serves as centralized storage for a number of networked computer systems. These systems are typically owned and maintained by the end user, resulting in significant costs and complexity for end users to manage. In response, cloud-based storage services provide secure, elastic, reliable, and cost-effective storage solutions. With cloud-based storage services, the end user need only enroll in the service and the service provider manages the hardware and configuration, data security and integrity, etc. This enables users to change the amount of storage available cheaply and easily, by signing up for a different level of service. Once enrolled, authorized users and/or applications can access the data from any Internet-connected device.
In the context of enterprise systems, a user identity generally refers to information that uniquely identifies a user. By providing some of such information, a user may be permitted to access various resources available within the enterprise. These resources can include, for example, software products, applications (e.g., cloud-based applications, enterprise applications, or any other applications), cloud services, various types of data (e.g., networked files, directory information, databases, or the like) and other resources. In order to effectively manage user access to resources within an enterprise, the enterprise often has to keep track of identity information stored in multiple systems of the enterprise. As such, finding improved ways to manage user identities and access to available resources within an enterprise continues to be a priority.